To Train an Occultist
by Zenatyra
Summary: "I don't work for free." Said Izaya "If you want my help, your payment will be: teaching me how you've cheated death, Fujisaki-san". Occultism isn't as easy as it looks, especially when your master is your rival in megalomania... Spoilers for Noragami's Manga throughout, For Durarara if you are not finished the Slasher arc you have been warned.
1. Fortunate

"I don't work for free. If you want my help, your payment will be: teaching me how you've cheated death, Fujisaki-san" the man behind the desk grinned. Though deathly serious, he was restraining rampant nerves. This was his first real chance at overcoming the abyss that he felt looming.

"So cheap a fee?" His guest asked, "You would not have me make you a trickster god."

"What do you take me for?"

"True." The magician smiled "You will be my first student in a century."

* * *

Yato had been called to Ikebukuro, he expected a job, no matter how menial or ungrateful the person making the request would be. Instead he was greeted by two sets of starry eyes, and expressions of astonishment and joy, which caused sighs in the people sitting around behind them, apparently less able to see him than the two who'd summoned him

He could get used to this… Except… why was it happening?

"Err…" He was thrown off his script "Well here I am. Just give your problems to Deliv…"

"Delivery God Yato" The man exploded. In more awe than anything, looking at him with

"MAY OUR FATES INTERTWINE! YUKINE IS THAT YOU?" The girl squealed, and nearly knocked Yukine to the ground trying to hug him and ruffle his hair.

"You've… Heard of me?" Yato looked around. This wasn't somewhere he'd ever vandalized. It was the middle of nowhere, under an underpass that had some sort of construction on either side.

"Gettoffmewoman!" Yukine tried to say around the woman's snuggling.

"No! I can't! You're too cute!" She replied without missing a beat.

"Erika, Stop molesting thin air… someone might see…" Said a man, leaning against the door of a van behind them.

"Dotachin? You can't see Yukine? He's adorableness personified!" she said, and the man, apparently named Dotachin shrugged and opened a book.

"Sekki!" Yato called, to save him from the woman's unwelcome embraces, and also to strike a cooler pose than his normal 'loitering drifter' one. "Well, my faithful, what would you ask of your god?" he tried not to stutter as he said the words that came off the top of his head in a spurt of trying to imitate the pompous speeches of the other deities.

"We just wanted a sign that you existed!" The man said, shrugging.

"err… did I manage that?" his tension slacking in confusion and Yukine held loosely beside his hips. He really was not used to this much attention. "what are your names? It's kind of… unheard of for people I've not met to know about me…"

"Karisawa Erika." The harassment girl piped up cheerfully, sitting back from where she had fallen when Yukine vanished from under her.

"Yumasaki Walker." The man said, digging in his pockets he started rambling "we do have offerings we'd like to make. We thought that wasting your time needed more though, so If we're allowed to ask something of you then please come with us so we can make more substantial food offerings"

"Yuki." Yato called the boy back, so that the kid was peeking over his shoulder. He caught the coins tossed in his direction and lightning fast put them in his bottle-o-savings. "I don't think there's any way I can refuse now that I've accepted payment…"

"Greaaaaaaaat" moaned Yukine, his face red.

There was great awkwardness as the other two men were made aware of their existence, the deity and regalia were seated snugly between Erika and Walker, in the van, and drove to a restaurant.

"So, you still haven't explained how you heard about me." Yato said between mouthfuls of food.

Erika pulled a bag, seemingly out of nowhere, and put it on the table with a great thud, and sloshing of drinks. "We read about you of course!" She handed him manga from the mysterious bag… manga that talked about him… _Noragami._

"We don't know how closely it follows your life. We're still at the part where you want to become a god of fortune."

"That's a rather long phase…" Yato said vaguely, staring at the embarrassments, and victories recorded in the pages with a kind of terror.

"Well, we were thinking… If you existed,"

"which obviously you do,"

"you might need some sort of focus for becoming a god of fortune."

"Most of the ways you're trying up to the present issue are playing to your strength as a war god"

"But that role is already taken"

"But you are good at severing connections."

"So why not do for people what you did for us."

"And become a deity of belief"

"What?" the god said.

"Like, a deity that specializes in divine protection on a personal level."

"And who comes to people who are afraid of losing the good things that come from belief, when their faith is flagging"

"Because that connection is delicate as anything, and you seem to understand that more than anyone else."

"Did you summon me to give me advice?"

"YES" Both of the excitable Yatoites said.

* * *

**No ownership implied**

**The amount of occult theory in Noragami is kind of staggering. I mean the whole concept of a deity created from the wish of a powerful human is right in line with how Daemons are supposed to work in our world. What I mean to say is, If Yato didn't exist before the manga, then he probably does now. A Daemon created by the continued thoughts of Fangirls... this couldn't possibly go wrong...**


	2. As easy as it looks

Any reasonable business would be closed by this time of night.

Any reasonable consultant would have sent their mysterious customer home by now.

Instead the ancient man, who wore a teenager as if he were a new suit, was poking around admiring the eccentricities. He hovered over a gameboard that seemed to be in a sort of chaos. "What sort of rules does this have?" the magician asked.

"oh, none really… Don't lose." Izaya said vaguely, studying something that his… Master… said was a magickal text. He was nearly tearing his hair out at the complicated herbs and motions and maths and gods. It was beginning to dawn on him that there was probably a reason so few people believed in magic now. It was too difficult, and with delayed results, and you'd never know if you'd enchanted the world or enchanted yourself. Getting people to do things for you was actually starting to sound like the easier option.

"I approve." His master commented. "And you use this to control your little battlefield?"

Izaya paused, looking up in confusion, "It's just to keep track of everything…"

"Oh. Pity" Master had picked up a piece and was holding it up to the light. "This has the makings of some powerful sympathetic magick"

"What? I just did that because…"

"Because it made it easier to focus." Master was grinning. "everything else is just fluff, that is, if you want to be a magician."

"What do I need to do?" M-Master, this is getting ridiculous."

"That said, other people's focus is useful too. Here, homework, collect pieces of a person's body. The person must be alive, have strong connections to you, and be someone you'd want to manipulate."

"You want me to chop bits off Shizu-chan?" Izaya laughed, "It's not very subtle"

"It can be anyone who fits those categories. And anything would work, blood, hair, nails." He shrugged "People aren't as careful as they used to be, it'll be easy."

"It's not just carving little dolls and sticking pins in?"

"Not when you're weak, apprentice. Don't argue."

"I am not weak!"

Master took a brush out of his bag, drew an eye on Izaya's desk. The eye came alive and slithered off the surface. Towards the suddenly terrified Izaya, jumping down his throat, the eye couldn't be felt, and could barely be seen, but when Izaya tried to speak, no sound came out.

"Weak" he said "Your abilities are making you weak, kid. You _can_ find another way out of trouble, so you will. Magic won't come to you because you shout enough, it wants to be needed." Master was laughing, his outstretched hand still clenched. "You need to learn humility"

Izaya grabbed his phone and started typing madly. How did Celty handle this every day?

Master said "Oh, you wanted to speak, child?" and opened his fist.

Izaya felt his voice come back to him in a wave. "Why are you powerful then? How did you get to be strong if weakness is some kind of requirement?"

Master closed his hand again, trapping his student's voice again "You think I started out like this? You flatter me." He said, before walking out the door, waving over his shoulder with one hand. The other hand kept its grip on Izaya's voice.

* * *

Anri found herself wandering, muttering to herself, or rather, to her parasite. Saika had been growing restless. The deadness of emotion that Anri so carefully cultivated was starting to crack under the persistence of friends, and responsibility. Saika was sure to make her aware of it, forcing herself into the smallest crack, trying to get out.

_You never let me have any fun_

"I wonder why, Saika"

_Why do you keep me like this?_

"Like what?"

_You only call me Saika, why don't you call me by my human name?_

"You have a human name?"

_You gave it to me? Can't you remember?_

"No. I can't."

_But you're a magician, you're supposed to have a handle on this._

"What?"

_Use me, or let me go free? I have other masters to see to._

"How can you have other masters?"

There was a boy, about the right age to be at highschool, who had stopped dead on the sidewalk. Staring at them over his shoulder. Saika filled Anri with excitement, using all the voices she had collected, and tried to overwhelm the girl enough to gain control for a split second. _"Father!" _Saika yelled, with Anri's mouth.

The man grinned and held out a hand, "CHIKI" he called. Anri felt herself empty. The space in her mind that should be filled with words were silent. The space in her body that should contain the sword was just flesh. The place where there should be deadness was filled with shock.

The boy held a staff in his hand, and Anri had lost her host.

"So this is where my Mizuchi has been hiding all this time… keeping you hostage?" The boy named Father mused "That will not do. Chiki, cut down this former master of yours."

* * *

**If you can't tell I was having occult angst while writing this... You might want to brace yourself cause it's a thing that happens if I let it...  
Why is it so much fun to watch Izaya suffer?**


	3. Your own good

Every phone in the Restaurant's booth went off at once. There was a brief set of confused looks at the god. The obligatory "Wait, You're a Dollar too?" comment and glancing at the frantic message.

Yato paled.

The email read:

_Some sort of monk: really young, light hair, school clothes, monk staff, is threatening an unarmed girl in an alley off ..._

Yato Gulped "Yukine, this one's for us." He said, nodding at the silent watchers, before disappearing.

* * *

The watcher, in a building overlooking the street, flipped his phone closed. The Dollars were a really useful group, you didn't need a voice or even a face to get their attention.

Fujisaki could take his voice, but he'd be damned if he let the man take his extant battle. That said, If Izaya Orihara, who could take on just about anyone one on one, was too vulnerable for this, how could any of the Dollars do anything.

He yawned, only to be disappointed at the soundlessness. It was time to fabricate his alibi for when Master got suspicious.

* * *

Anri's eyes went blank. There was nothing to be done. She couldn't outrun it, she didn't have Saika anymore, she was just… normal. She was a parasite without a host and she accepted that. She accepted the fate of all parasites: Loneliness and oblivion.

It was taking longer than expected. She heard a gasp of surprise, calls of "SEKKI" and "REND" almost in unison. She dared to open her eyes. There was a boy in front of her. His grip on two crossed swords were all that kept Father's staff from connecting with her.

"Run, Now." The new boy said, his eyes frighteningly serious. She ran, stopping when she couldn't be seen but could hear them. Finally able to think, she searched desperately for a way to help.

"Yaboku! How nice. This is how you greet your father? By rebelling against him?"

"This isn't the first time. You're not surprised, are you?"

"Not at all."

From her hiding spot Anri called out, with faltering imperious tones that could, with work, rival the father's, for her host "SAIKA" She expected the blade to appear in her hand as it had in his. She was the mother of the cursed army, how could anything defy her.

Her hand stayed empty.

The boy with the dark hair wavered briefly "I told you to run! Hiiro won't come to you now." This broke Anri's stunned trance, kicking her legs into working. She hit the river of people flowing towards her, passing her off, one to another, yet again.

"She's persistent, I was right to treat her as a threat" Father said grinning and pulling back Chiki for another blow aimed at his son.

"How persistent does she need to be? She's a child."

"If she's a threat to me, she's a threat to you."

"don't you dare," Yato said quietly. "try to say this is for my own good. I will live. I won't live on death anymore"

Father lowered his staff, laughing because he knew he could. Yato lowered his swords, calm, attentive, and measured as only a short lull in battle could make a warrior. Father turned his back, waving nonchalantly over his shoulder "good luck with that." He said as he wandered off away from the crowd that stood whispering at one end of the alley.

Yato walked the other way, feeling a need to find the girl who'd kept Nora quiet. As he passed through the crowd he felt a rush of acknowledgement. Some people made way for him, watching. he listened halfway to the whispers.

"I've never seen a kata like that…"

"What do you mean kata? That was a fight."

"He was the only one there"

"No, it's this guy… What was his name?"

"Ya… boku… he called him…"

"What a pretentious name"

Yato let that slide. He felt drained. Fighting with Father drained him. He wondered vaguely if he'd been created by some kind of energy vampire.

* * *

**Short, I know, I'm worse at fight scenes than Izaya is at obedience...**


	4. Strangeness

"CYHYRAETH, WAIT UP!" came a voice from far behind the headless rider. She stopped, for no other reason than that no one else near her could be mistaken for someone with that kind of name. The boy, whose voice it was, jogged up a huge disbelieving smile on his face, an unreasonably fluffy, boy was trying to catch his breath a way behind him.

She took out her phone and typed "Me?"

"Yes you. You're looking great, long time no see! How long's it been? A hundred and seventy five years? Since I tried running away to Europe. I don't think I ever properly thanked you for that so yeah… thanks…"

"Sorry, Who are you?" She typed

"Yato… you remember me? Right? Yato…" he deflated. "You don't remember."

The fluffy blond one reached them "have you made a friend?"

"I guess I was wrong…" Yato said sadly. He tried to turn but a hand was on his shoulder pulling him back to look at a screen on which was written

"You remember me? Come NOW!" she summoned up a sidecar and pulled the boys in, driving away at breakneck speeds.

Yato tried his best to roll with the revelations. He'd been vaguely searching for the girl his father's obsession had wrapped itself around, through the night. He was falling asleep on his feet. It was ridiculous. It wasn't as if in his current state he would even be able to put up a decent fight, especially not against his father.

* * *

Shizuo leant against a wall as he had a smoke and watched his friend text frantically at thin air. It wasn't the strangest thing he'd seen her do. Even as she pulled thin air onto her bike and rode off towards her apartment, it wasn't that strange for her.

Though it might be that strange is relative around here.

A dull tap on his jaw broke through his thoughts. He looked at where it had come from. A skinny dark haired man was holding a handful of pebbles in one hand, and a single one ready to be thrown in the other. Shizuo could have recognized him anywhere, if it wasn't for the wrongness.

It was something in the smile and the stance. It was definitely Izaya Orihara, but the smile was forced, trying to look easy going and smug, and failing. Not getting it to reach his eyes. His posture was off too… vulnerable… wavering. "Get out of the city, you damn…" Shizuo started but it was forced and faded away. What was wrong with him? The sight of the flea's face, a reliable trigger, was there, but somehow he couldn't feel anything but hazy concern.

He waited for the flea, who seemed as surprised as he was at his calm, to speak. But he didn't. "What's up, lost your voice." Izaya gave an unnaturally quiet laugh and a roll of his eyes but then deflated slightly and nodded. Shizuo felt laughter build up in him and erupt, which seemed to actually scare Izaya. "Don't go getting it back any time soon. I could hate you a bit less like this."

Izaya's face contorted into expressions of anger, cycling through levels of frustration and then despair before he threw another pebble at Shizuo. It bounced off his forehead, without making a dent in Shizuo's temper or his skin. "Is that the best you can do without your powers of witty repartee?". Izaya dropped the pebbles, eyes narrowing in annoyance, or possibly in readiness to fight, and he started walking forward. He raised his hands to where Shizuo could see their emptiness. The uncertainty Shizuo felt at this could only partly be explained by the strangeness of the other man's behaviour. It was putting him on guard, and he'd not got a defensive bone in his body.

He found himself just standing, watching the man get closer, hoping that he could summon the strength that he'd need when Izaya inevitably drew a knife.

It wasn't happening. The man just got closer. The focus in his eyes were doing strange things to Shizuo's heartbeat. It beat as if he was about to wrench the wall he leant upon off its foundations, but he couldn't move.

Very close. Too close. Fingers brushing his lips as they took the cigarette out of his mouth. His heart needed to calm the hell down. It needed to stop sending blood to his cheeks. A hand behind a jaw. Head too light. Lips pressed against his. Eyes closed. A gasp. An opened mouth. An eager tongue exploring. His tongue joining it. Poking. _What was he doing? _Prodding. _This was Izaya?_ He felt… paper?

He pulled back in surprise, feeling a tug as several hairs were pulled from the back of his head. "The Hell was that?!" he shouted, and Izaya gave an embarrassed smile, the first he'd let Shizuo see, and quickly skipped back a few paces. Holding golden hairs in one hand, and a smoking cigarette in the other, he gave a wink and darted away, as strange as he'd been the whole time.

"Did that… Did that… really happen?" he said, patiently waiting for it all to make sense. He reached up to his lips for the cigarette that was unfortunately, not there.

The door beside him opened Tom looked at him "Smoke break's over. Time to… are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I… might have… I just always thought I'd know about this one's death…" That made more sense than anything so far… yes… Izaya had picked a fight too big for him and now his ghost was… no… why would his ghost want to…

* * *

**This was intended to be a fight scene... It kinda still is... but Shizu-chan wouldn't cooperate... **

**Izaya without witty repartee kinda scares me... Fujisaki needs to cut out the Little Mermaid stuff... he's kissed his true love. Now let him be sassy...**


	5. Names and Consequences

Fujisaki strolled into Izaya's office at a leisurely pace. "You Will Not Believe what happened to me…" he said, throwing himself on the couch. "I mean I was reunited with both my children, and I found a very interesting girl that my son seems to want to protect. Obviously I need to crush her, but… Are you listening?"

Izaya rolled his eyes and nodded.

"Well speak when your master speaks to you!"

He mouthed, "I would like to but for SOME REASON I can't make a sound." Making overly dramatic hand gestures to get the point across.

"Oh… Yeah I forgot about that…" He pointed his open hand at Izaya and said "Open."

"Well THANK YOU SO MUCH MASTER! You'll note that I have DONE the homework you assigned me and am trying to separate out what can be used of it, as we speak. And I did it without my goddamn voice. So if you intended to make this challenging for me then you've sorely failed, that AND… wait, you have children?"

"Well yes. Mizuchi here, for one."

"Sorry, who?"

A girl was sitting on his desk. He'd never noticed her before. He struggled to not jump out of his skin. "That's a rude reaction, Orihara-san. This is hardly the first time we've met."

"No… it is, because I don't know any small invisible children named Mizuchi"

"Oh that's not the name you know me by. Oh what was it… Saika." She tilted her head a bit to expose the word Saika on her neck "See?"

"Saika's a sword."

"Yes, and now I'm not. And you're very bright, a fallen angel watching the city burn from your own little hell. But now you're not."

"I have never been so glad that I wasn't cut in my life."

"Father, why are you keeping this child?" Nora asked.

Izaya, as the oldest body in the room, bit his tongue.

"He wanted me to teach him how to play with fire. I'm bored. And he's at least as good at getting people killed as Yato."

"Play with… I don't…"

"Well you're not taking it seriously enough for it to be safe" Master scolded.

"I have doubts, can you really blame me?"

"Yes, I can." Master said. "If you doubt yourself you will fail. It's why most of the really powerful occultists are insufferable as people."

"Joy, a club that seems made for me."

"KILLY-MA" Came a shout from the walls. Izaya looked around desperately, and saw, to his terror, The dullahan head with its eyes open, and speaking in drowned gasps. It was only for a moment, the eyes didn't adjust to the light before they closed.

"So you want something more dramatic than that to prove to yourself that you can deal with magic?" Master said chuckling to himself. "You have the head of a goddess as a wall decoration and yet you doubt. How postmodern of you."

"I got that without magic. So I don't think that's justified."

"What would be the most convincing thing for you, given the samples you collected. What should this boy do?"

"The most unusual thing for him would be… well… for him to become infatuated with me…"

"You… YOU… want to try a LOVE SPELL? WHAT ARE YOU? FOURTEEN? This isn't a slumber party, Iza-chan."

"get off my case. You wanted something that would convince me"

"We can do it. It's just not something I was expecting to hear. This should be amusing."

…

Izaya knelt by the pentacle, staring into the flame. He felt his energy swirling inside the circle. He could see it in the flickering of the light and the movement of the incense's smoke. "Heiwajima Shizuo, Think of me." He felt nausea start to grow but he ignored it. "Heiwajima Shizuo, make your thoughts soft. Make me the center of your fantasies." He felt a headache start to grow, he pushed past it. Pulling out a hair from his own head and a hair he had pulled earlier from Shizuo, he held them in the candle flame "By ties of desire I bind you to me." A violent spasm rolled up his spine, his head felt like it would explode, his stomach retreated into his chest and he fell into fetal position.

"Oh I forgot to mention, Anything you do to someone with magick you will experience three times as strongly." Master said, laughing as he placed his hands on the other side of the pentacle and released the energy. "You tried to violate someone's free will. You need to be very careful how you balance that out or direct it."

"I Think I… OWW… know that!" Izaya groaned. "When is this going to stop?"

"Oh, your trials are only beginning." Master laughed "It's really beyond me why everyone starts with the most stupidly dangerous spells. It's as if someone was trying to hurt inquisitive teenage girls."

* * *

"Shooter, How are you old girl?" Yato murmured stroking the handlebars of the bike when they were safely in Celty's apartment. He watched Celty start into a complicated explanation to the spikey haired doctor. "Aren't you going to let her back in her human form?"

The doctor shook his head. He could barely hear Yato, he kept falling in and out of focus. "Celty's in human form already…"

"I mean Shooter, here. You're keeping her manifested and it's kind of rude."

Celty showed him a screen that said "I don't know how to do that… Shooter's a human?"

"Yeah! I think the name you used to call her was Killy-Ma, try saying it."

"Is that some kind of joke?" She wrote.

"No... Yukine, ready?"

"Sure" Yukine sighed. "Ready as I'll ever be"

"SEKKI" Yato said showing off the beauty of the swords in his hands and then "YUKI", and the boy was back. "Try"

"Killy-Ma" Celty tried writing. Nothing happened. "KILLY-MA" she tried thinking, "KILLY MA" She thought, loud as she had shouted at the Dollars meet up. She saw a flash of deep orange and browns and a sensation like her lungs were full of water. She fell to her knees holding her chest, wishing she could cough.

Hands were at her shoulders, gently reassuring, a voice that was familiar, though light, and speaking a language that she'd only vague memories of hearing. "Mistress, get sum strrength in ye. It's all goin'a be all right." Celty looked up. The girl was crying, her lips were pale purple and pulled back into a smile, her hair so blonde it looked like liquid moonlight. She wore a loose dress cinched with cords, and made of Celty's shadows.

"Are you going to be okay? How long were you like that?" Yato said in that same language.

"Twenty Years." She said, helping Celty over to the couch.

The fluffy, blond, sword/boy looked at the girl in shock once Yato translated for him. "That long? That must have been agonizing! You didn't ask her to unname you?"

"Well t' ge'l didn't ken how tae talk ta me did she?" Killy said "Nae-one's fault but that bloke's pa."

After some brief translation efforts on the part of Yato, the boy took Killy's hand between both of his and said "Your powers of endurance are astounding."

Celty appeared deep in thought, she wrote out "Are my shadows people too?"

"Err… yeah… But I never met the guy… I don't know his name"

"GUY?" Celty wrote and Shinra Shouted.

* * *

**Since everyone now knows my stance on love spells DO NOT TRY AT HOME. DO NOT TRY TO BEND SOMEONE'S FREE WILL IN ANY SPELL, BECAUSE IT WILL BE YOU WHO BREAKS. There are ethical love spells but they are sort of like... mental perfume. A person who is good for you will perceive it and be drawn to it. but you can't control who that person is without your ethics flying right out the window.**

**Sooo yeah Killy-Ma is apparently a Kelpie who shapeshifts, and seduces people in exchange for immortality. I haven't done much research into her I'm just figuring that it'd be cool to write her and that she could be a decent alt for Shooter.  
**


	6. Shura-chan

Master watched Izaya squirm on the ground like it was the most endearing thing he'd ever seen. "So now all you have to do is wait for the poor young man to come seek you out. Though I have to warn you, you're the one that wants him more." He pulled the Dullahan head off the wall, putting it deep in a closet, covering it with a cloth. "Now that you take me, and my art, seriously It's time for lesson two."

Izaya groaned in pain

"That's no way to address your master! When I start a lesson, you respond with a hearty: Eus"

"—eusss"

"Close enough" He said. "Anyways. Now you know that you aren't entirely useless at magic. You need to learn about the watchers."

"What? Now?"

"Yes, this Shizuo guy is coming to us, you can't just sit around wanting him. It's pathetic." He threw himself down on the couch "See, there are these things, they go by a lot of names but for the sake of irony I'll call them watchers. But you've heard of them; Grigori, daemons, servitors… Demons are the accidental ones… Anyways, the Watchers, are made of unspoken thoughts. They are where those thoughts fly away to. It swirls around you and mixes with other people's and it gets complicated. You could call it a hive mind."

"uhhhhh"

"And it is impossible to control unless that personality is given a name."

"a name?"

"Yes, because the name will give it individuality. And with that it will separate from the bigger watcher. Becoming your own personal god."

"Why tell me this now?"

"Because you, Orihara Izaya, are responsible for so much of Ikebukuro's Watcher, that it would pop into being at a word from you. However, a lot of that looks like some kind of sexual tension. Do I need to draw you a picture for what happens to your ability to create this watcher in…" He looked at his watch "two hours, twenty five minutes?"

"oh… oh god… what have I done…"

Master gave a huge, terrifying smile, "You're going to have a baby, Orihara, Cheer up!"

"shut up"

"It's 'Shut Up, MASTER'"

* * *

Heiwajima Shizuo wandered, frustrated through the city. He didn't particularly know what he wanted to do. He'd narrowed what he needed down to three options: food, sex, or to punch someone in the face. One of them was out of the question, and as for the other two… if he thought he needed to eat and ended up hitting someone that wouldn't help him. So there was only one thing for it. Go find goddamn Izaya, go a few rounds sparring him, and then go get food.

It was a solid plan as far as he was concerned. It wasn't like there was a time when Izaya didn't deserve to be hit with a vending machine so… wait… sparring? What was with that word suddenly?

Whatever. Same difference.

Board the train to Shinjuku. Sit. Think about all the reasons he wants to punch Izaya's face in, and all the ways that could be done. Stand. Get off the train. Walk along streets filled with people who don't know to be frightened of him. Enjoy the anonymity. Step.

Step.

Step.

Trip. Fumble. Catch self. Run. Balance. Step.

He felt like he'd dropped a heavy bag from his shoulders. His head was suddenly light, and he couldn't control his legs properly. There was air in his lungs rather than strange and stagnant syrup. He could feel all the muscles in his body start to relax at once.

Tranquilizer?

No. He felt full of life.

Like his spirit was only half in his body, half swirling above him expanding and feeling things for him as if it were Celty's smokey stuff. He felt boundless. Nothing could contain him. Usually he only felt like this after fits of violence. But the world wasn't crumbling around him. There was nothing to tell him to be ashamed of himself yet. Just this feeling of relief, of being clean.

It felt like he'd float away if his eyes didn't anchor his soul. It felt like he was holding onto life by his fingertips.

* * *

"You really should have known this would happen." Master said, bored and scratching at his neck waiting for his apprentice to peel himself off the floor. "You even know someone who's had this happen to them"

"What?"

"Who's the girl with the scars?"

"Harima Mika?"

"Sounds about right." Master said. "She's got all the signs"

"I'm going to end up like her?"

"Nah, You had different declarations. She probably went for 'love' not 'gentleness' and 'thoughts'. Abstracts are dangerous."

"It would be nice if you could have told me the lesson before the test."

"Oh but where would be the fun in that?"

"Everywhere" Izaya muttered. Finally managing to sit without curling in on himself, Izaya cracked his knuckles. "oww… So creating a god… yeah… I know how to do that…"

His master got up, stretched and walked over to Izaya. He knelt down beside him. Looked in the eyes that had learned fear. He touched Izaya's neck with a fingernail, dragging it down the man's arm and then on the other. It left a prickling trail and when the hand held his neck and his master said "Open" the trails burst with feeling. Swirling energy like wind moving through him and out and getting lost were full of familiarity like they were part of him that he'd never bothered to feel before.

His master released his grip. "gather it all together, and when it feels right give it a name and a purpose."

He tried. He really did. He tried to hold on to the energy that he could feel, but as soon as he tried it would float away. Slipping through his fingers. He stood, in case his position mattered. There was another stabbing cramp near his hips… damn that spell… damn that… Shizuo… he'd made Shizuo helpless… for a moment maybe… but he had done it. And he'd not done it with sass, or with flare, or violence, or cunning, he'd just shown him, unintentionally, how vulnerable he could be…

But that was too hard a task. He couldn't master this energy, this flood, by being open, he would break, it would wash him away, there would be nothing left but the flow. He couldn't. couldn't. can't cant can't…

But he had. So he could. So he can.

He could fall to his knees.

He emptied himself of all his walls, of the invisible masks that he wore one over the other until he couldn't see through them. Something warm rolled down his cheek, into his mouth. It tasted of salt.

He could feel. There was rage there. There was fear. There was sadness. There was immense, immense grief. And there was a warm buzzing in his throat that he couldn't identify. There was elation. LoathingPainJoyPanic. Everything coursed through him, picked him up and swirled around him briefly like he were a sudden, deep hole in the mud of a river. He pulled himself deeper, became those feelings.

_Who are you? _He heard a weak little voice ask him. It might have been his imagination.

"I am… I… don't…" he heard cracked thoughts emerging. He wasn't. there was confusion, there was loss, there was fear, but were they his? Was there a him to feel them?"

"ORIHARA IZAYA, YOU ARE THE WATCHER OF THIS CITY. CONTROL YOURSELF."

It was his Master's voice, so usually turned into tones of anger or depreciation. It told him a name. Told him a purpose.

He could be again.

The vortex was pulled away from him it grew smaller and smaller more dense until it was a single point of blinding light.

Words came to his tongue effortlessly "I stand with a foot in both worlds. I am the center around which the spirits dance. I am the watcher and I charge you to learn, to know. I name you Shura. Awaken. Be." He drew the kanji for the fledgling god's name, watching it become visible even to his untrained eyes: 修羅"

Izaya collapsed. Just before he lost consciousness he saw small girl, no more than three standing in front of him, looking confusedly at her arms, in a bright, white, adult sized kimono. She had black hair peeking out from under a thick layer of very pale familiar blonde. "Father?" she said.

Damn that brightness. He thought as his world fell into blackness.

* * *

**Empathy is pretty much the worst magickal power to have in abundance, and this is from someone who tries her best to keep people happy. I know that for me, extreme emotion always feels good as long as it is not being fought by the person feeling it. Basically, even if someone's angry at me, and I absorb that but I can tell that it's their rage and not mine it feels fantastic, but if they are telling themselves they can't rage at me, and in fact should be happy, then it gets all twisted up with my emotions and it hurts. **

**For Izaya, in the context he's taking the emotion from, it would be a concentrated taste of his own medicine. muhahaha**

**Also... Shura. I probably messed up the Kanji... I've only been studying Japanese seriously for a few months and Kanji even less than that. I am told that Shura means "Place of Carnage" in Japanese, but in Russian it is part of a name that means "Leader of people"... I figured the combination of the two would be fitting. **

**Anyways, enough monologing... If you like this, talk to me. **


	7. Dawn

When Izaya woke, still on the floor, still feeling the waves of pain and… something… rolling through him the first thing he registered was the lighting. It had changed. There were overhead lights on, but the sky outside was just light enough to be visible despite the reflections.

He'd been out for hours.

The second thing he registered, after he'd peeled himself off the floor with an audible groan, was a Tch of amusement or underwhelmed interest. "Master, this still isn't funny… What have I done wrong this ti…"

"Master? That one's new… I don't think I could get used to that pet name." a familiar voice said from somewhere behind him. Shit. It wasn't Fujisaki.

"Heiwajima Shizuo? Does my apartment still have a door?"

"Ha! Surprisingly, yes." The voice said, It was… wrong… lighthearted… Izaya turned, not sure he'd like what he saw. But he saw the blond man holding a drink of some kind, sitting back on his couch, and tilting his head to one side as if Izaya was the most fascinating thing in the world. "You know, I came here just cause I thought I needed a fight… but I have no anger in me now. None at all… It's amazing. I don't know what you decided to poison me with, but it's great."

"I'm… not poisoning you… how did you get in here?" Izaya managed, feeling the pangs of longing that he'd filled himself with during that goddamn spell writhe around inside him.

"Young guy and a little girl opened the door for me and then left. The girl smiled at me as if she knew me, it was weird. Why was there a small child in your apartment?"

"You could see her?"

"Well yeah… She wasn't THAT small."

"Oh yeah, of course. No… she's my… daughter" he tried out the words, they tasted strange…

"Your daughter? She left your house with a random teenager a few hours ago then. You're one hell of a guardian"

"That was a person who… knows what he's doing."

"As opposed to you… How did you even manage to end up with a daughter? Someone actually put up with you for that long?"

"Is it that much of a surprise" Izaya tried to force some sass back into his voice "You don't have a monopoly on people willing to put up with eccentric shit."

Shizuo froze. Then an expression of surprise came over him as he didn't come anywhere near snapping into a violent rage. "What's her name?"

"Shura…"

"You named her after what you did to your hometown?"

"Doesn't mean that in Russian. And some of that was your fault."

"I don't believe in that one percent"

"Shut up, don't you dare judge me"

"Waaaaaaaay too late for that."

There was a single loud clap that echoed off the walls. Izaya's palm stung. Shizuo's head was twisted to look out the window. Izaya put it all together. What the hell… "Snap out of it Shizu-chan, what's happening to you? This isn't you…"

Shizuo's gaze seemed to turn inward, then he laughed, long and hard. "I don't want to hurt you… I can look at your face, which is so pathetic right now, by the way, and I don't want to throw your fridge at you. This is amazing. Damn I hope it lasts…" he said giving Izaya a flick to the forehead that sent him flying.

Picking himself off the ground seemed to be becoming a habit for Izaya "Oww… Th-That's better. See… You're still… You're still… Oh god I'm so sorry…"

"Hmm? What was that last bit? I couldn't hear."

"I'm… I'm sorry… for… everything" he said, sitting down a distance from Shizuo but on the same couch. Staying at arms-reach at least. Curling in on himself running a hand through his hair so that he didn't have to look Shizuo in the eye while apologizing.

"That's a bit broad…" Shizuo had to have a malicious grin on his face at this point. Izaya knew him enough to not need to look "What in particular are you apologizing for"

"Your… your rage…" It had clicked into place, Shizuo had been channelling… that was the only explanation… all the tension that had been stirred up for the amusement of Izaya was expressed through Shizuo… Only natural that Shizuo would know to hate him at first sight.

Shizuo's silence drew all the sound out of the room. Izaya looked up and Shizuo actually looked concerned. That was more frightening than anything else… "Orihara, you're a bastard. You're a terrible person. You're a liar, and a pervert, and a manipulative ass. You've done so many terrible things that I can't count them… and THAT is what you choose to apologize for?!"

"B-but"

"You are not responsible for my goddamn emotions. You still deserve to be hit in the face with a goddamn vending machine, don't get me wrong, but you are not responsible for my actions."

Izaya silently cursed his eyes for growing as bright as Shinras always were. He'd wondered how the little pervert could see past the stars in his eyes, apparently it wasn't that hard. "But… don't you see… you're a… I'm a... You're cured…" He stammered and allowed to fade away, how could he even start explaining all this… tell someone there's magic in the world, they'll laugh… but Shizuo had seen proof. He'd known Celty for years, Saika too… Telling Shizuo that his curse was lifted because Izaya had borne a child… no… his mind spun and the conclusion came off his tongue before he could run it past his judgement "You have no reason to care about me anymore."

"care? That's way too soppy a word to be coming from the mouth of an Orihara…"

"Shut up"

"What did you do with him?"

Izaya swore briefly in Russian. "I'm right here, you moron" he muttered when he'd calmed down.

"No you're not. It's weird, I wanted you to stop your twisted shit for years… but now… Is it weird to say I want you back?"

"WHAT?" Izaya yelled. "Want me back? Who the fuck would want ME back? Why would you? I made your life a misery. I did that without… You never caught me… You can't have me back if you never had me."

"I don't know… I said it was weird" Izaya found himself in a headlock, being pulled onto his side, into Shizuo's lap. "See… that shit right there. You're not resisting, you're not staying out of the way… If I lost control right now I could squish you like a bug… That's terrifying… you're supposed to be a person I can't do that to. Do your job, goddamn flea" Shizuo smiled awkwardly

The knots in Izaya's stomach, remnants of the damn love spell, started to uncurl leaving a warmth in their wake. Surprisingly gentle given the forebodings he'd had. Somehow he'd imagined the release of their tensions would be more… explosive… "Shizuo… lets go find our… my daughter… Then get us fixed up..."

* * *

**This was getting a bit too long... so here goes...**  
**And I need to apologize to the Angry Ace Dragon, I promised no Shizaya fluff... I didn't intend Shizaya fluff... it just sort of happened... I guess that's what happens when you throw a love spell at a vulnerable Izaya-kun and a serene Shizu-chan...**


	8. Fathers and Facades

Sonohara Anri sat in class, not paying attention to much except the feelings that seemed to be blooming in her. Without Saika… what was she… She was a human without a limiter. She didn't have to worry about letting herself love. She hadn't felt this radiating energy flowing from her since she was a child, far too small to appreciate it. It made her feel there were strings tied around her heart, holding the pieces together with the sheer distance of the hearts on the other end.

What were they supposed to be learning today? Philosophy? What was Philosophy about apart from Love, Death, Evil, and Magic? She had way too much life experience with all those things to be enthusiastic…

"Good Morning, Class. We have a transfer student, I hope you give a warm welcome to Fujisaki-kun" Said the teacher. Everything was a blur after that. Her body froze. Silently she listened to her heart frantically trying to pull at its strings, pull them closer, tell them to protect her. She reached a hand into her jacket's pocket. Somewhere along the line, as she had been passed along from Dollar to Dollar, a blade had found its way into her pocket. It was a strange thing. A switchblade, much loved, discoloured from age, but razor sharp, in the handle was engraved a single character, "See" in a childish hand. More than a weapon, this was someone's talisman. It seemed to absorb her fear. Someone was rooting for her. She almost knew who it was, except he wouldn't do something like this...

Fujisaki sat down behind her "Sonohara… hmm… I think I've changed my mind, I like this whole teaching thing. So fun. How would you like to become a fully fledged witch?

"No thank you, sir. Sorry. I'd rather not."

"Well aren't you polite?" he said, quietly. "You've got more raw talent than my fool of an apprentice, come on, join me."

"Fujisaki san, I used Saika and she used me. I had no real desire to do anything more. If you want her, you can have her."

"Oh but now I don't want her, I want you. After all, My son wants to save you."

* * *

There was a knocking at Shinra's door. It was barely audible over the cries of "CELTY, THOSE ARE AYAKASHI, NOT ALIENS KILL THEM NOW" that came from the ongoing attempt by Yato and Celty to exorcise the apartment.

Killy separated herself from the fray to listen to the new sound. She could barely understand the language they were speaking but "Oh for the love of God, you weakling, let me have a go." Sounded familiar in pieces, and then the door simply fell off its frame at a huge knock.

"Well… Apparently I still have my strength…" said the tall blond man.

"I could have told you that, you violent idiot." Scolded the irritable shorter man. "Did you forget how you flicked me across the goddamn room?"

Killy pulled Shinra into the hallway quickly, gesturing to try and get across the message "Who are they?" but Shinra wasn't looking at her, he was looking at the arguing duo. He slapped his own face.

"Nope, not dreaming…" Shinra said, still staring. "So you two have finally…"

"Shut up! We can explain"

"No we can't! I was hoping you'd understand…"

"Did you know this ass has a daughter?" Shizuo pointed accusingly at Izaya as if he had been betrayed in someway.

"WHAT?" Shinra exploded, The noises from the other side of the apartment were starting to subside. Most of the spirits gone by now by choice or force. So Celty poked a curious neck out the door. "Who's the mother?! Why didn't you call me? I would have helped with prenatal and checkups, and... and..."

Izaya could only mutter "…It wasn't exactly a conventional birth…"

"So… You dropped out of public life for a while a few years ago… Izaya, do you have a uterus?"

"Sure, on my bedside table. NO. Idiot doctor, the situation is… complicated."

"Well who's the mother?"

"Complicated."

"ooooooookay then…." Shinra mentally filed the conversation under _nag about at future date_ "Shizuo, What's up with you! I don't know whether to be proud or terrified! You've teamed up with Izaya… Between you you've got the head and the heart of the city… Are you two going off to have adventures? I mean I'm a bit busy to run around being your healer…"

"Shut up. We haven't teamed up. For some unknowable reason I don't feel like murdering him so I'm basking in that."

"Well I know the reason…" Izaya muttered

"I don't hit wounded kittens, you mean?"

"Something like that…"

Celty wrote in huge letters "but why are you HERE?"

"That daughter we were talking about…" Izaya said "I think I can find her from here."

Everyone just looked at him like he had suddenly gone sane.

"What? I need a place that the person she's with doesn't know…"

"You have to find the person and lose them first though…" Shizuo said.

"Separating them is the easy part."

Listening in on this, Yato felt a sinking in his stomach. He tapped Celty on the shoulder "are they usually like this? I take your laughter for a no. Just… be ready. This thing feels familiar… and they are both bewitched…"

Izaya sat down on the, recently exorcised couch, pulled out a phone called a number. "Shhh, yes, Shura-chan, This is dad, I'm feeling much better. Can you come to me? Quietly, that's right, don't disturb uncle Fuji. Follow my voice." His voice was soothing, if it was anyone else he was calling it would have sounded manipulative. But there was concern in his voice that none of them had ever heard before.

A small, mostly blond girl in a huge white kimono materialized in front of Izaya, he knelt in front of her and pulled her into a tight hug. Surreally sweet, silencing everyone except Shizuo.

"Sh- she can teleport… Please tell me Izaya can't teleport… Or the mother can teleport… what is happening…"

Yato put a hand on Shizuo's shoulder "Calm down… and… congratulations…" Yato smiled in an awkward way.

Izaya was talking to Shura as if she were grown. He had a vague memory of feeling patronized when people had talked to him as if he were a child, when he was a child, so… be the parent you wanted to raise you… he guessed. "Did you have fun with Uncle Fuji?"

"Yes! We played lots of games." Shura said. Shizuo felt Yato's fingers dig into his shoulder.

"What did you play?"

"Catch! With these big red square things filled with paper! It was fun!"

Yato relaxed, but Shizuo looked like he was going to explode if his questions weren't answered soon.

"That sounds like fun." Izaya pointed over his shoulder to Shizuo "Uncle Shizu-chan, and I used to play that game all the time, and tag. We'd play a game whenever we saw each other."

Shura broke Izaya's grip and ran to Shizuo, hugging him around the knees "HEIWA-CHAN!" she yelled in glee, blonde and black hair flying. She looked up from around his knees, and he couldn't keep himself from meeting those eyes, one deep red, the other hazel. "I know you! You're a good guy! Scary guy… But without you everything would be way worse… Don't know how I know that…"

Shinra gave a descending whistle… "… and to think we questioned who the mother was…"

Shizuo, now looking thoroughly terrified, held captive by a small child's huge grin and tight hug looked desperately for an answer in the faces of the onlookers. Celty's silent laughter was giving nothing away, Izaya's blushing and turning away as he nursed quickly bruising ribs, Shinra's slight terror. "Well if everyone here knows but me…"

Izaya found a voice "Shizu-chan, you idiot, I never said our daughter was human."

"HEIWA-DADDY" Shura squealed in glee.

Yato pulled Izaya to one side while the others fussed over Shura and Yukine continued to relax on the couch, not willing to miss out on some rest after the exhaustive exorcism.

"When you said 'Uncle Fuji', dare I hope that the end of that name was a moto, or yama or anything except goddamn saki."

"Sorry to disappoint…"

* * *

_Shizuo was holding Shura up in the air as if she were made of blown glass, beautiful to look at, fascinating to imagine, and anxiety inducing to hold. "Shizu-daddy, I want a hug."_

_"__I might hurt you…"_

_"__I'm big and tough. You can't hurt me." She said, radiating unreasonable confidence. Aiming hard play-punches to Shizuo's arms._

_"__You hug me first, Squeeze me and show me how tough you are."_

_"__OKAY" Shizuo held her against his chest and winced in pain as she squeezed him tight. _

_"__Enough! Enough!" he pleaded after a while. "You are strong! You really are my daughter!" His smile was edging on maniacal "Oy, Spirit looking kid, is there any risk?"_

_Yukine waved vaguely "She's a god, you might hurt her, but you won't kill her. Or permanently scar her" he said after a moment of thought. "You'd be amazed what this useless lump puts up with from our high priestess." He pointed vaguely at Yato._

_"__Okay Are you ready, Shura-chan? Here's a daddy hug." He hugged the girl with most of his strength. She giggled loudly like he was tickling her instead of holding her in a grip that would bend metal._

* * *

Izaya didn't let the gaze he gave to Yato falter. "Why do you care? Do you know him?"

"He's my father. A terrible father."

"I can imagine. He's a terrible Master."

* * *

_"__Neck lady, What's your name?" Shura asked when Shizuo stopped squeezing. Celty held out a response. "Sorry neck lady, I can't read yet."_

_"__Her name is Celty," Shinra said, happy to show off his girlfriend even to a child "She's just like you only she can't speak."_

_"__Am I going to be pretty like that when I grow up?"_

_Shizuo handed Shura to Celty, pointed to himself and said "not exactly like that, you'll probably look more like your dads," Shizuo's pride was overboiling "do you think your dads are pretty?"_

_"__Mmmmmm maybe" She said, Shizuo laughed._

* * *

"She's going to struggle too, when she learns who her fathers are to the rest of the world" Izaya mused.

"You misunderstand" Yato took deep breaths "My Father… MY FATHER… is terrible… There are no words to describe it. You left a NEWBORN GOD in his care. You let him convince you to do a GODDAMN LOVE SPELL."

Yukine was the only one in the room not staring "Yato, you're shouting."

Shinra muttered "Love spell?"

Shura was put on the ground, she walked unsteadily to Yato pushing him hard in the knee and making him fall. "Don't be mean to Iza-daddy. He was sick."

Yato tried his best to calm down, but there was still a slightly homicidal gleam in his eye as he looked up to meet Shura's eye level. "I'm Sorry, Shura-chan, I was just worried about you. If Fuji-san is your uncle, then that makes me your cousin, Yato-kun. My dad isn't a nice person. You have to promise that you will never trust him."

"But… why?"

"Because he's a liar. He'll trap you like a bird in a cage, and none of us want that. He's someone that will break people for fun, people who are strong, or mean, or who love themselves a bit too much, he will turn into toys, making them cry, if they are even close to keeping things working, or just because he wants to show that he's stronger" Yato said, taking a long time to find words that weren't antiquated or curses, it had been a long time since he'd had to explain his father.

"Izaya-kun!" Izaya heard. Immediately cursing the fact that they were inside. If Shizuo started channeling here he was in trouble… He felt arms wrap around him and lift him off the ground. Like he was made of paper. He was spun around to look at Shizuo's smiling face, a true smile, something he'd never expected to be aimed at him.

"Do you really want to start this now? I'd rather not die in front of—mph" He couldn't continue because Shizuo kissed him. Inexpertly, with more force than was necessary. Another side to his overflowing emotions apparently.

"What?"

"Are they always like this?"

"We're all gonna die… That's it! I'm out. The apocalypse is coming…"

Shizuo's eyes were shining "I never thought I'd say this, but I am so glad I kept failing to hit you! Shura's a gem! Please say I have some custody!"

"Stop being so sappy, you sound like my grandfather..." Izaya said, not making eye contact and blushing. "And my worth, apparently, is defined by what I can give birth to… fantastic…"

"This is sappy?" Yukine looked vaguely interested. Killy, sitting next to him, seemed entertained and yet bemused by the rapid fire Japanese around her.

"Come on Izaya, don't be stubborn!"

Izaya called over his shoulder "Oi, Shinra, Don't worry about the apocalypse. It's still bright out, Ragnarok wont start till a wolf eats the sun… eh, Celty?…" he trailed off as he realized that everyone was staring at him except Killy who was laughing. "I guess I'm the only one who got that reference."

Yato rolled his eyes "Killy says that your pronunciation is terrible."

"well excuse me for not speaking Old Norse."

* * *

**I have this headcanon that Izaya is somehow descended from Claire and Chane from Baccano. I mean if he got Chane's looks/fondness for knives/focus and Claire's god complex/acrobatics/monologuing/dislike of angry blond guys... it could work... So I did the math and they could only be grandparents unless they got immortality. **


	9. Memory

Yato had pulled the non-humans away, something about reminding them how to be gods and regalia. He scribbled down an address and a phone number, handing it to Izaya. He gave a parting warning.

"If you care at all about this child then remember her. With all your might remember her, write her name on your forehead if you need to. Tell your friends, if you have them, about her. Spread the stories of Shura, the spirit of this city. Don't let her be forgotten."

As Yato and the others left, the three men looked at each other awkwardly.

Shinra broke the silence. "Friends… yeah… I'll get right on that…"

"At least I'm good at story telling…" Izaya sighed.

Shizuo laughed "Hey, look, Shinra, the Flea's not useless for once."

"I'm not yet so soft that I won't cut you Shizu-chan." Izaya said between clenched teeth. "I'm going to go get some sleep." He walked vaguely in the direction of Shinra's spare bedroom but his wrist was caught in a vice.

"Oh no you don't." Shizuo grinned "We are ALL going to go celebrate the birth of our daughter"

"Eugh, how long are you going to dwell on this!? I don't want to be dragged around everywhere by you"

"for as long as this lasts. We might never get a chance like this again."

"And if we're stuck like this?"

"Then you're stuck with me." Shizuo chuckled as he dragged both of them out the door. "I don't actually mind you when you're like this…"

"Oh joy…"

"You two are way too creepy like this." Shinra cut in. "You need to get back to normal soon…"

Izaya opened and closed his mouth a few times looking for words. "Aren't you the one always telling us that we should be friends? Encouraging your geeky drinking buddies to write weird sexual shit about us, by giving them details of our lives?"

"Errr…"

"He says that to you too?" Shizuo asked. "I didn't know about the drinking buddies… err… speaking of… where is this bar…"

Shinra was feeling very nervous about his place between them, as Shizuo strode ahead following Shinra's hasty instructions, and Izaya sulked behind them, resigned to whatever was going to happen. The mutual friend, feeling that some explanation could help keep the peace offered up "I just thought that it might be best if you two had other hobbies…"

"b-but I'd break him…"

"Ne? You honestly think you'd be in a position to?"

"You've thought about this?!"

"Probably… at some point…" he murmured examining his nails and thinking _any topic but this, the love spell probably hasn't been finished off yet._

"W-why!?"

_Maybe he could scare Shizuo off this track?_ Izaya walked faster so he was even with him, in front, spun around, walked backward till Shizuo stopped. Izaya brushed Shizuo's neck with his fingertips. His thumb coming to rest on the man's lower lip angling his head down to look him in the eyes. "Does the beast, really, want to know what goes on inside my head?" _Shitshitshit he's blushing… he's not attacking whatdoido?! _

Shinra came to the rescue. "Guys… people are staring, tone it down… aaaand it's on the internet by now… are you happy Izaya?"

Izaya wrenched himself away as haughtily as he could, with an entirely artificial Tche of disgust. "See Shizu-chan, you're easy. Not at all my type!" He dodged the push that tried to send him into traffic and skipped on ahead. Thank the gods for Shinra's awkwardness…

Finally entering the bar to the sound of Shinra's nervous chattering they grabbed a table and waited, pretending not to know each other, while Shinra went to get drinks [read: escape].

Izaya checked one of his phones.

[Y.N: As much as I'm enjoying the time off, I have bills to pay. Let me work or pay me, you bastard.]

[Master: Nice trick… who taught you that I wonder…]

Izaya's breath caught in his throat. Fear rippling through him… and because he was Izaya, he tried to laugh it off, harshly.

"What's so funny?" Shizuo said, as if he was talking to himself.

Izaya drew a total blank on what to say while his mouth ran on auto pilot. "You're always ruining my plans…"

"Oh? Compliment accepted. What did I do?"

"You made me uncertain."

"…about…"

"You're supposed to be the one who kills me."

Shizuo was silent.

"Obviously not now. I need to figure out if Celty's actually a Valkyrie first… but… it looks promising… I mean that kelpie girl… she… But when I do… I need to die in battle… I can't think of anyone I'd rather have my last fight with."

"I'm not going to jail to help you deal with your death anxiety."

"I'm not asking you to… It's actually in my will… that if it's you then you aren't at fault"

"…unexpectedly generous… why?"

"It's part of the Valhalla thing… a warrior has to do more than die in battle. They have to have a certain grace about it, being in control of everything till the moment of their death. Be intelligent, artistic, and generous and… oh gods I fail miserably at all that… except the intelligence of course."

"Just be glad Humility and selflessness weren't on there."

"though I could make certain of it by killing a rampaging monster and dying at the height of my achievement… what do you say? Want to take me with you?"

"Ha, and spend eternity in some stinking mead hall with YOU? I'll pass."

"Well you are the one who dragged me here…" he said gesturing to the surroundings. "It was worth a try, After all Valhalla would be pretty lonely for me…" unspoken but somehow still there were the words _But that wouldn't change much, would it?_

They hadn't noticed when they had started staring at each other with such intensity, or when the brightness had entered their eyes. It had just happened. When Shinra came back with what seemed, an unreasonable number of drinks he was all bluster and dithering "Sorry I actually forgot it was you two I was looking for when I came back cause nothing was being destroyed. I'm not complaining… it's just… Did I miss something? Did you two just confess your deep and abiding love that everyone else has known about since highschool?"

"WHAT?!" the two looked up at him in sudden rage.

"It is not deep or abiding." Said Izaya.

"It's not… Izaya… back there… when you were having your little fit you said something about a spell…"

"That was Yato"

"Sure… who?"

"The self-appointed god babysitting our daughter…"

"Daughter…"

"WHOSE BIRTH WE ARE CELEBRATING" Izaya yelled "BECAUSE YOU INSISTED WE DO THIS INSTEAD OF RESTING."

The rest of the bar went quiet.

Shizuo paled. "How… How could I have forgotten…"

Shinra paled. "Izaya… you… just now… you sounded like…"

"I know! Okay! And it's taking all my self-control to not start flipping tables." Izaya lied. He just wanted desperately to not talk about the spell, and giving his best Shizuo imitation was the best way to do that.

There was a slow clap from the far corner of the bar and Izaya stiffened as he realized, too late, that the energy of the room had changed long ago.

He could feel his voice slowly draining away. With the last breath that he might be able to take in a while he choked out, "Shizuo. Shinra. Run. Now."

* * *

**Poor Shinra...**


	10. Breath

A crowd of spirits found themselves in a staring match with a teenage girl. Yukine took a defensive step backwards. The girl gave a smile that was too bright to be genuine.

"Yato."

"… err… yes Hiyori…" Yato ventured.

"Why have you shown up in our living room… with all your friends?"

"err… You're my high priestess… and I need some help..." he quavered before finding himself pinned, face down on the floor by the spirit of his priestess.

"I should rephrase that… Why are you here NOW! You could have called! You could have kept in contact! Do you know how much I worried about you?!"

"Sorry! Sorry! That is totally my fault!" Yato wheezed. "but Another time?"

The noise of the fight between spirits had drawn at least some attention. A tall boy peeked in. He had expected to see his sister passed out on the floor but took the unreasonable scene with as much grace as was possible. "Err… hey Yato… Sis, did the situation really require leaving your body?" he said though his eyes were wandering to the crowd of impossible people.

"Of course it did! This jerk doesn't even call me for weeks then he drops in with all his friends."

"We actually did need some help here…" Yato wheezed as Hiyori pulled at his arm.

The boy's eyes sparkled "In that case, what can Iki Masaomi do for you wonderful, if unfortunate spirits?" he said as he sat down next to the sleeping body of his sister.

Hiyori let Yato go. Stood up, dusted off, and sat back into her body. She crossed her arms and turned her head resolutely away from her patron deity. "What do you want?"

"Advice, mainly" Yato said. He peeled himself off the floor. Motioned to the others to find places to sit, which they gladly accepted.

"Huh?"

"We've got a bunch of humans… or I think they're humans… Who we have to turn into priests. They're willing. But I need to know what to watch out for with them."

"I am no priestess" Hiyori declared.

"But you interact with me, you built me my shrine… You are everything a priestess should be."

Masaomi looked puzzled, he'd been staring at Celty for a few minutes now, and she was starting to fidget. "Sorry… but aren't you the Headess Rider?"

[Err… Yes… my name is Celty] she typed.

"And you're a god?" Masaomi continued.

[apparently. It's news to me as well.]

"But doesn't that mean that you have thousands of believers? I don't know of many people who deny your existence anymore."

[Well, it's true that I've been getting more energy since I've started being more visible.]

"So that's what belief does, eh?" Masaomi said, wonderingly.

Yato turned to Masaomi "Well it's easier for her, for some reason she's able to be seen by everyone. She's a strange one. She makes it look easy."

Celty blushed. Hiyori felt a tug at her sleeve. Shura looked up at her with her big mismatched eyes, full of pleas and confusion. "Please help my daddies, Hiyo… Priestess"

"I'll try… Who are you?" She said, overwhelmed by cuteness.

"My name's Shura-chan! I'm still little… but I'll grow up to be the strongest person you've ever seen" she smiled proudly. Everyone looked like it was endearing to them, except Celty, who leaned away slightly, contemplating who this girl was destined to become.

"You're already very strong, Shura-chan. Don't worry about that yet." Yato added.

Hiyori was running the name through her head, working out how it was spelled. "She's a… She's what you were, Yato?"

"Well she could be if she wanted to be. She could also be a Guardian. Her magician is more than talented enough to make her powerful. And her medium… Well I don't know about her medium…"

"So why are you asking me, and not… oh I don't know… Tenjin."

"Tenjin doesn't know how to be a priest. Especially not the priest of a small god."

"You know what I mean. All I do is put up with you."

"And that makes you a wonderful priestess" He pulled the little goddess up on his lap. "Especially to advise a couple who will be raising a child goddess that will definitely be a hellraiser."

Masaomi had been unintentionally staring at Celty. "Wait up. Aren't you from that neighbourhood with the… the vending machines?"

Celty slouched, giving as close to a grimace as she could, before typing [Yes. That neighbourhood]

"… Why is so much weird stuff from there…" Masaomi started texting someone. Celty, aware that she wasn't going to get a word in on Hiyori and Yato's debate peeked around to see who Masaomi was texting

[Oi, Nakura, why didn't you tell me there were magicians in your neck of the wo-] He had typed in, but the rest was never to be, because Celty had wrapped her shadows around it confiscating the phone as soon as she'd seen the second word.

"What's that for"

[Don't talk to that guy!]

"Why? I get that he's an internet friend, but Internet friends can be good too."

[He's bad news! I swear! He's the person that your parents warned you about when you started going on the internet]

"He's a useless member of society?"

[YES! He doesn't have anything resembling a legal job! And he stirs up conflict for who knows what reason, and he delights in causing other people pain. And he pretends to be a young girl on the internet… and… and he's one of the people we're asking you to help… I give up.]

"Nakura?"

[yes…]

"Small world"

[Not really… As soon as you were within a few degrees of separation he probably started stalking you]

"Stalking?!"

[It's nothing personal, he stalks about 200 people]

"… that's…"

[Creepy?]

"I was going to say 'talent'"

[I give up]

"… hmm… It would probably be worthwhile to earn a couple favours from someone like that"

[whatever, It's your funeral]


	11. Their Game

The bar, already waiting for a fight based on the mere presence of Shizuo and Izaya, finally got one. It just happened to be completely unexpected.

Two figures moved towards them, one striding along as if he owned the place. The other was being dragged along by something invisible, her legs weren't even moving, and her katana was held as if she were fighting it.

Shinra tried desperately to get a clue as to what was going on. "Anri-chan… Why…"

"She's possessed. He's got a spirit lodged in her." Izaya wanted to say. But his voice was stolen again. Why weren't they running. Wasn't it obvious that this guy was too strong for them?

Izaya turned toward his master. There was no way he could win by running… so he had to… what? Stand and fight someone with two centuries more experience, without even a weapon… and using… using magic… so be it… What did he have? Wine and other alcoholic things… condiments… a table… and a burning desire to get the two people, who were the closest things he had to friends, to safety.

Better than nothing.

"Izayaaaaaaa, You disappoint me." Came the drawling voice of the magician "I would have thought you'd ward yourself and hide as soon as you'd got your servitor from me."

_And watch you mess up my city? I'm so much greedier than that._

"Servitor? Who the hell are you to talk about my daughter like that?" like the idiot that Shizu-chan was, he was going to stand and fight… didn't he realize he was outclassed?

"Likewise… Ooooh I see… I've never seen a bewitchment work quite that well though! Izaya, you have more talent than I thought."

Izaya winced in apprehension of what Shizuo might react with but continued with his adhoc potion… pouring a whole salt shaker into a glass of cheap red wine. Wine was sort of like a catalyst, wasn't it? Salt a purifier… well that made a certain sense.

Shizuo was walking purposefully towards the magician, only to be blocked by Anri. "Get out of my way, kid…"

"Heiwa-jima-san… please… help me… I'm sorry…"

Shizuo looked in her eyes which were flickering between red and brown at a dizzying speed. She was about to bring Saika down in a long slash along Shizuo's body. But Shizuo knew that move. He caught her wrists gently, by his standards and disarmed her, throwing the sword to the corner of the room. Speaking solely to the magician he sneered "normally, I'd say the enemy of my enemy… you know… but you've beaten my enemy at his own game. Which means you're more intense than my enemy. And my enemy and I never had any particular goals spurring us on. I just didn't like his face."

Fujisaki lazily flicked a finger and Anri, her hand over her mouth, gasped the word "Saika".

"So you've officially been raised to the rank of 'target practice'" Shizuo snarled. Picking up a nearby table and throwing it at him.

Anri was dragged around and forced to cut the table in half, getting deep cuts from where its arc hadn't diverged in time.

"Stop hiding behind other people you coward!" Shizuo yelled, "And the OTHER coward should be helping me."

Izaya had nearly finished with his attempt. Sending tendrils of consciousness he searched his own body for the seat of the phantom. Feeling out its shape, its energy, he took a long drink of the disgusting mixture, sending the energy he'd put into it, and any cleansing power salt may or may not have straight to that place. He coughed and spluttered, and could speak. He could barely see a little eye shape thing wriggle out of his mouth and fade away. "I had to make sure I was useful when I fought. You idiot, why didn't you take the chance to run? He'd have cut me in half and you'd be rid of me." Izaya rambled making up for lost time, scoping out the situation. "Never thought I'd say this, but, NOW!" Shizuo threw yet another table, and the moment Saika was brought down in its arc to cut the wood, Izaya stood on the flat edge, tripping the girl and tipping the makeshift cleansing potion into her mouth. He tried to make his energy push the phantom out of her. It was more or less effective. She passed out, which was good enough for now. Izaya stood up again. Not looking behind him to where he knew Shizuo would not be.

"You'll really regret that…" Fujisaki said smiling in an all too sinister way "Chiki" he called and the staff was in his hand.

Shizuo jumped out from where he was circling behind the magician and tried to land a punch. He was met with the full force of the staff to the stomach. The magician had not taken his eyes off Izaya for a moment. "That really is some job you've done getting him to fall in love with you… You must be in agony."

Izaya didn't dignify that truth with a response. Instead he raised a hand and tried to put some sort of shield in front of it. Expanding, thickening, he watched as phantoms, lazily sent his way, bounced off, but he couldn't do this long. Impatient as his master was for an answer, he raised his own arm, placing a shield at the end of it, forcing the shield against the other. Izaya panted, too many thoughts, too many aches and pains to focus properly. He couldn't do this, he couldn't do… his feet, not used to being firmly planted, were sliding across the floor with alarming speed as the other's shield gained more force.

His back hit something solid. The solid thing was breathing harshly. Raising an arm to support Izaya's tiring one, wrapping the other around his chest.

"Shizu-chan?"

"Haven't we known each other long enough to drop honorifics?…"

A surge of confidence seemed far overdue, and this… this was just the impossible thing that could cause Izaya to believe in anything. "Master. I quit. Thanks for teaching me, but I quit." Izaya said, making the lazy self confidence of the magician waver ever so slightly. "I'm an amazing witch. You said so yourself. I'm also stunningly intelligent. And can hold my own in a fight with the best in this city." He felt a warning squeeze from Shizuo saying that the bragging was going to have more consequences if it continued. "Master, I make enemies easily, but look, my worst enemy is still on my side, when faced with you? Who do you have?" His shield pushed at Fujisaki consistently, only gaining the strength to push the magician off balance when he yelled "COMPARED TO GETTING THIS MONSTER TO SIT IN THE SAME ROOM AS ME, YOU'RE NOT THAT MUCH OF A CHALLENGE."

Fujisaki stumbled. What was supposed to happen now? Izaya hadn't planned anything… damn.

Izaya was silently cursing his lack of planning when Shinra popped up from behind a broken table and stabbed the magician in the neck with something cylindrical. The Magician fell to his knees. And then unconsciousness.

Both of the doctor's friends stared in disbelief. Izaya broke the silence "Shi- Shinra… Do you always carry tranquilizer with you?"

"Only when I'm enough of an idiot to third wheel a date between the two of you…"

"Not a date…" Shizuo murmured unconvincingly. Not loosening his grip on Izaya.

"That makes a lot of my highschool memories awkward…"

* * *

**So I still suck at fight scenes. **

**Hopefully the next scene won't take me as long as these two did.**


	12. Close Quarters

The phone rang only once before Yato picked it up, desperate customer service suddenly infusing his entire being. The voice on the other end was having none of it. "Yato, We have a problem."

"Izaya? What kind of problem?"

"Well when I say problem, I mean hostage." Yato put the phone on speaker.

"Who did you…"

"Your father attacked us. We only knocked him out."

"How in the hell did you manage to knock out my father?! He can go one on one with gods!"

"I don't know… something Shinra intended to shoot me full of…" Izaya sighed. "Anyways, you know him best, and at the very least we need Celty here to bind him, more firmly than I can manage, for when he wakes up." Celty started texting frantically causing a number of buzzing noises from the other end of the line, and a laugh from Izaya "Celty, calm down, Shinra and Shizu-chan are safe. I'll talk to you after I hang up here, alright?"

"S-so he's just vulnerable at this point…" Yato said, his nerves radiating away from him.

"Are you implying that any of us would kick someone while they're down? We have some pride." There was some hushed conversation and a frustrated sigh "Okay, apparently I'm not allowed to speak for myself here, and one measly example from years ago will be brought up until…"

Shinra's voice interrupted fuzzily "… nearly died, Izaya…" there was some scuffling as Shizuo took the phone.

"Is Shura doing okay?" Shizuo nearly shouted at the phone that sounded like it was being held at arms reach.

"I'm fine, Dad, but I keep getting talked over and it's getting annoying…"

"well soon you should come see us. We're headed to the flea's Ikebukuro apartment, I don't know where it is… obviously… but Celty should be able to bring you all there."

Click

Celty looked down at her phone, and the last message she had sent [You don't sound like you have a plan. Are you okay?] She supposed that she should have asked about the others, guilt swirled above her neck mixing ever so slightly with curiosity.

Yato started explaining to Celty how deities quickly appeared where their followers summoned them, only to be reminded that all but one of their newly expanded party could easily be spirited away.

All eyes turned on Masaomi Iki "We're not that far, I could take the bus…"

Celty leaned where her head would have been on one hand before coming to a decision [No I'll drive you.] she showed him, before Killy smiled at something not said aloud, laughing, and leaving the room. Celty followed without a word or gesture.

"I… suppose we are supposed to follow her…" Hiyori ventured.

Masaomi thought for a moment. "I suppose this is a bit too convoluted to explain to our parents in a letter, isn't it?" he said, getting up.

"You, of all people, want to tell our parents where we're going?" Hiyori questioned, silently debating whether or not to bring her body. She looked at Shura. _Having my tail pulled by her would be… nope. Nope nope nope. Bringing body._

"Well considering how this guy has affected us. It's pretty prudent to think of informing them, don't you think?" Masaomi called from the hall.

"I really don't want to start getting into supernatural confession time." Hiyori said scowling slightly at her own memories, and following him outside with the others. Celty, Killy, and the as yet unnamed shinki working as Celty's shadows, had together produced a small bus and two helmets which she tossed to the Ikis. Everyone piled into the jet black bus.

"Do we really need to wear helmets? I mean this is a bus." Masaomi said.

Hiyori had been questioning the apparent cat type ears on hers, comparing them to the smooth, standard motorcycle helmet. "Sooo because I've got a tail I'm suddenly a cat girl…" she mumbled.

Celty typed a message [Shooter is a horse, but she moves like a motorcycle. Mortals wear helmets on motorcycles.] She would not put up with argument or complaint, not when her Shinra had been fighting. Not when her Shinra had done what gods hadn't been able to do.

The ride in the dark bus was taken in silence.

Upon arriving at the building those with better hearing were aware of a tinny scratching sound. It got louder and louder as they ascended to the right floor and finally was recognized as Shinra opened the door for them, and gestured halfheartedly at a painfully predictable sight.

Izaya and Shizuo preened, you could practically see the energy rising off them like feathers lifting in the attempt to be bigger than the other. They were close enough already, but every line of banter brought them closer.

"What was that you just said, Flea?"

"You heard me"

"And you know that I'm only giving you a chance to take it back once"

"Yeah, I do know that. It's amazing that you think you're so subtle."

"Oh yeah? You wanna have a go at me?"

"You know I do!"

"Okay then!"

"Okay!"

They were already touching at foreheads, and chests, before hands started to reach. Clenching, drawing back. Into a pocket. No focus could be spared for anything else.

"GET. A. ROOM!" Shinra shouted, with a rolled paper megaphone up against both of their ears. They were nearly knocked over by the unexpected interruption. "My darling Celty, and Your daughter are here. Neither need to see this."

Izaya started to laugh and turned out his empty pockets. "Shinra, you saved me" he said, his voice far too innocent as he flung an arm around the doctor and earned a glare from both his… longtime acquaintances.

"Wait? You were unarmed through all that?"

"Well yeah, We're fighting a magician, obviously I'm going to keep things that could be used for contagious magic in places I'm not going to lose them."

"Con-what?"

"Shizu-chan, I have to thank you, up until now I wasn't aware of how quick on the uptake I was."

"WHY YOU"

Izaya dodged the punch, and faced the newcomers with a flourishing bow. "Welcome! deities, and lovely humans, to my humble, what was it you called it?" he glanced at the glaring Shizuo "Lair? Wasn't it?"

Shura rushed up to him and easily tackled him to the ground in a fit of giggles over "how silly dad's being". Yato barely spared a glance for the scene, his thoughts entirely focused on business scanning for threats, Yukine taking his cues from this, but Yato's panicking when he explored too deeply brought that to an end.

One of two doors on the opposite side of the room opened slowly, and a much dishevelled Anri stepped out, rubbing unconsciousness from her eyes. "I really should stop doing things that end in me waking up in strange places…" she muttered to herself before seeing the now slightly dispersed crowd. "err… sorry, but whose house is this?" she looked around, she knew Celty's house, and Izaya was hidden by a couch, she didn't recognize the others, so it was probably the house of the one sulking on the couch like he was already sick of his guests "Heiwajima-san?"

Izaya looked vaguely in her direction despite the obstruction. Shura decided it would be funny to put a hand over his mouth and prevent him from answering. He glared at his daughter as if to say _two can play at that game _and tickled her unmercifully.

There are few things more disconcerting than anonymous childish laughter.

However, when said laughter is overlayed by "try again, Anri-chan?" in a voice that is very much not anonymous, it could make even the most pacifist person go on high alert. In Anri's case it sent her hands into a pocket to pull out and open the switchblade she had been passed. Holding it in front of her as she searched the room for the source of the voice.

"O-Orihara-san?" she said, with a tone that would usually be used for 'scum' barely audible under the quavering. Shizuo burst out laughing.

"Down here" he said, pushing himself up onto his elbows "Anri-chan, will you calm down and stop threatening me with my own knife? I'm honestly on your side while you're human."

"while I'm human?"

"Yeah, I know, pretty broad standards, right?" Izaya sighed "Now would you mind giving me my knife back? Look at who's here, this is either the most dangerous, or safest place in the city, no middle ground. And I feel kind of naked without it."

Shizuo choked back his laughter, which had dwindled to consistent but chest shaking chuckles. "So after all that stuff you said?" at any moment the laughter would come back stronger than ever.

"Well what was I supposed to say?"

* * *

**Izaya's been filling me with too many Raijin-trio feels in his apparent season 2 role of comic relief... I'd eat hot pot with you, IzaIza...**


	13. Bound

"Hey, Yato, you can stop scowling. Your father's still out cold, and if he wakes up I have… ways, reasonably safe ways, of righting that wrong." He had handed Shura off to Anri, with a warning to Shura that Anri was to be played with gently. So he sat on the couch holding a bandage to a wound which Shura had enthusiastically and accidentally reopened while playing with him. He was even now trying to acknowledge it as little as possible, he didn't want to think what negative reinforcement could do to a deity.

"Reasonably safe?" Yato said, noting how Shinra's expression was suddenly wooden.

"You don't see me criticizing your skills, do you?" Izaya's fingers twitched slightly in annoyance. He was never good at teamwork.

"How do you know he's asleep?"

"Well the word is unconscious, and we would hear an almighty clamouring if he were to recognize where he is."

"Well can I see?"

"Oh of course."

Shizuo spoke up, "Hey you didn't let us see before"

"You're not his family, a god, or someone I am entirely comfortable exposing the skills I learned for my private life to." Izaya said, his eyes closed as if this were the most obvious thing in the world. "So of course I didn't let you watch, Shizu-chan."

Yato didn't look very sure at all about the casual tone Izaya used. "err… so… where…" he said, Izaya pointed to the door that Anri had not just emerged from. Yato gave Yukine a look of concern that convinced him to stand back, and amuse himself as far from the door as possible. He went to go play with Shura and Anri. A very curious Shizuo followed behind him, not to be denied his look into anything Izaya didn't want him looking at.

Izaya sighed "Celty-chan, you should come to fix anything I missed, and Shinra, I know you're just itching to check that he's in good shape. You're welcome to come see now." Izaya slowly stood up, avoiding any transient movements that put weight or strain on his cuts. He followed after not only the people he had talked to, but the Ikis and Killy-ma, who no one thought to hold back because she probably couldn't be harmed by the magician's words.

"There's… no one here…" Yato said, standing in the middle of the floor looking around at a bed and chaise, dresser and closet that, in the gloom all looked depressingly ordinary. Izaya couldn't help the smirk that was pulling at his lips. As he quietly walked behind them, gave a quiet cough and snapped his fingers. Dozens of tiny pot lights in the ceiling gave a low glimmer drawing every set of eyes upwards.

"Oh my…"

"That's…"

"So the Flea's a spider in his spare time. What a surprise."

"No one appreciates my art"

The figure above them was tied in every thickness of rope. Sprawled out on two thick pieces of bamboo as if being crucified on his back, he had been tied at many points on each limb except his neck which remained free. His chest arched away from the bamboo, tied to its own cieling ring and his arms twisted so that the slightest movement would only pin him more firmly. His legs bound together and to the bamboo so firmly that only the slightest adjustment was possible. Between his fingers and toes were miniature versions of this, with thin rope appearing to web before firmly fastening them down. On his eyes a blindfold. In his mouth a gag. The entire structure was held to the ceiling by many ropes that tied him in various places before returning to their respective rings. Many of those ropes were attached to a large bell.

"Allow me to explain. In most cases this much would be overboard, I admit, but he is a special case. This kind of binding is not meant to hurt, though I have been told that the rope gives a prickling sensation, either he feels very good right now, or like he is being hugged by a porcupine. Really depends on his preferences. I have been careful not to place any knots on veins or nerves. The tension is steady through the entire piece and very little unnecessary strain is put on any of his joints. It just might be the best suspension I've ever done."

"Spider…"  
"are you talking to me; or labeling me, protozoan?"

"Yes." Shizuo said, caution in his voice "Why did you learn to be this thorough?"

"Thorough? You know I try to be the best at everything I do."

"I mean…" Shizuo swallowed. "Most people wouldn't need anything this heavy duty… and this is in Ikebukuro."

"I told you, you wouldn't like delving into my private life." He laughed quietly and leaned in to whisper in Shizuo's ear. "Aren't you glad I never caught you?" he said, revelling in the shiver that ran down Shizuo's spine.

The Ikis, not being used to Izaya being Izaya, hadn't adjusted yet enough to speak, though Masaomi had gone a pale green colour. When he finally spoke it was hesitantly "N-nakura?"

Izaya froze "Nakura? Who's Nakura? I'm Izaya!" he dodged a punch from Celty that came out of nowhere "Okay Okay I admit it, I'm Nakura, Have we been introduced?"

"Err…" This was not how he expected this to go at all.

"No wait, don't tell me… You're… The-Other-Masaomi, I'm right? Aren't I?"

"Other…"

"Oh yes you were the one who had such a desperate problem with his..." Izaya started

"DON'T TALK ABOUT THAT" Masaomi shouted. Izaya quieted down, he probably had never intended to finish the sentence. Probably. The silence was heavy, and hard for Masaomi to break. "…What were you planning?"

"Planning? I haven't been planning much lately, Everything's been turned upside down."

"You know what I mean. I have enough friends at school who practice kinbaku…" –questioning glance from Hiyori- "… to know how precise you had to be to manage something like this. You have to be constantly working eight steps ahead to manage something like this…" Masaomi gulped "If you were talking to me I was part of some plan… right?"

"hmm… what would you believe of me… I heard that you were connected to this guy and tried to get hints from talking to you. He contacted me first though, and my whole plan turned out to be a terrible idea?"

"because that makes you sound trustworthy" Shinra muttered distractedly. "Is there any way for you to lower him so I can make sure you're not killing him -I mean- to double check the skills you've put to use here, Izaya?"

"Nice save, Shinra. And yes, there is." He pushed a button on the wall and against all expectations the ropes connecting rings to the ceiling lengthened. Becoming aware of confused silence, Izaya sighed "It's a false ceiling, I'm not going to spend my sleepless nights staring at industrial piping, and pulleys."

Shizuo spoke first "How much do they pay you?"

Another sigh "Obscene amounts, Shizu-chan, Information may be a renewable resource, but harvesting it takes finesse."

As the suspended man was brought close to, but not lain down on, the bed. Shinra awkwardly stepped around the figure, running a hand along various points, trying to test strain on the back, taking his pulse. He tried, and tried to find something wrong with the set up but somehow what Izaya said was the truth. There would be no physical harm done to this man, and he would be kept from doing harm. He was almost disappointed after all that.

Yato and Killy-ma were looking at the spectacle questioningly, speaking back and forth in their antiquated Gaelic language about some sort of prospect. Yato looked less than pleased at what she was proposing. And the parts that Celty could overhear made her look from them to the bound figure, completely taken aback.

Shinra lifted the blindfold to check for broken bloodvessels, and threw himself backwards. The Magician was staring at him, smirking, insofar as you can smirk around a ball gag.

Izaya's gag.

Izaya's Rope.

Izaya's Bamboo.

Izaya's miscalculation.

* * *

**In case you were feeling in need of more Contagious magick...**

**So I'm moving this story up to M rating, partially because of the kinbaku, partly because it gives me more freedom, and partly because of what I suspect Killy-ma of attempting. **

**I lifted Killy-ma out of a "Dictionary of lesbianic faery lore" so I have no idea how accurate even my source for the little Kelpie is. Regardless, what the dictionary attributes as her power would complicate things nicely. **


	14. Sticks and Stones

The mistake was obvious to every onlooker as soon as the magician's eyes were uncovered.

The bastard had never been bound.

No amount of rope, or bamboo, or intricate knots could keep someone like him from harming who he wanted to harm.

Not really.

Izaya's horror quickly turned to fear and was engulfed in pain. He fell to his knees, with a hand pushing at his eye, and the other nursing his stomach. "Ha, well… well played…" he wheezed as best he could around the overwhelming, and familiar, feeling of internal bleeding.

Shinra had jumped away from the man, his shock broken only by his doctor's instinct that couldn't let him overlook his friend's pain.

Shizuo stood completely still, shocked, waiting for his rage to deal with this problem for him. It wasn't coming. He felt confusion, fear, surprise, and the presence of something fascinating, but not anger… For once in his life he could think through his actions, and this once, he was helpless… Violence would do nothing… Ripping the man from the rig would just get him killed… he wasn't a big enough person to die for the flea… He wasn't a cold enough person to actually kill…

Yato was jabbering, about plans and decisions and how all they had really wanted was to make sure this was the last body the magician would burn out.

Izaya, though he was trying desperately to maintain his dignity in the face of holes in his kidney, liver, and part of his hip, let out muffled whimpers of pain, and one or two yelps. He heard a voice near his ear, and another keeping its distance trying to reign in that first voice.

"Izadaddy! What's wrong! What's that purple mark?! Why's it growing?!" Izaya looked up into the girl's eyes

"I'll be okaaaaaay!" he squealed as opening his mouth let some of his pain have an unrestricted way out of his body. He shot a glare at the magician that must have channeled an evil eye somewhere.

Shura didn't fail to pick up on it. She looked over to the figure tightly bound over the bed, and the energy in the room grew prickly, and electric. She strode across the room, a raging god, in a childish body. Tried to climb up onto the bed, purposefully. She couldn't quite manage it. Shizuo picked her up and tried to keep her away from the dangerous man.

She glared at him, "Put me down, human." She said, her voice cold. "If no one else is doing anything, then I need to grant my father's wish"

Shizuo felt a shiver run down his spine, and carefully set her down on the bed. "Violence isn't going to…" he started to say, but had to stop when he heard a loud crack of bamboo. The rod that had supported the Magician's back had split in two, his back was arched so far that it was a matter of time before it broke under his own weight, and large fragments of bamboo were embedded in his flesh. Blood was dripping onto Izaya's bed. Shura stood with her fist still raised in an uppercut. She smirked. Crawled around on the bed, and still on her knees, grabbed a hold of the Magician's hair to make him face her.

"Stop hurting my father." She whispered, and as the whining from the doorway quietened down she continued. "Now I'm going to take you down. When I do, Leave. Never bother anyone who you see here or anyone connected to them again." She smiled "After all I don't know what kind of spirit I am yet. I might very well be a death god" She tore him down from the ceiling roughly, causing some of the bamboo to dig deeper. She tore off the thick hemp rope as if it were wrapping paper and pushed him off the bed.

Shinra fidgeted at the scene and was only kept from administering aid by a weak hand on his shoulder, from the hazy Izaya.

As the Magician limped out of the room there was no words, except Yato summoning Yuki to keep him as far from the magician as possible.

Click.

He was gone.

Izaya started to laugh.

Shrill, manic, pained, but still laughter. "Idiot, Izaya, what did you expect? Blackmail? Ransom? Information? He's got us all outclassed."

Shura fainted, and the atmosphere calmed down. She fell face first onto the bed, and the puddle of blood. Yato hissed in shock. Running towards her and pulling her out. Half her face was already succumbing to blight, the blanket becoming a mass of miniscule phantoms which bit at the gods. Yato disappeared with Yuki, and Shura.

Hiyori slumped to the ground and Masaomi stammered unsure of what happened.

Unaware of the medical fussing of Shinra lower down his body, Izaya stared transfixed at one of the smears of blood on tile, mpre precisely at the tiny bugs that were swarming. Things that should have been invisible to a human were practically glowing. Unthinking, he tried to swat at them, and ended up with blood on his hand, which soon swarmed with phantoms.

Shinra was scolding him for moving, but he couldn't watch the bugs swarm over him, slowly gaining their ground, any longer. He slowly, painfully got up, pulled the blanket off the bed and then the sheets, when he found them stained too. And started dragging them, smearing the floor's share of blood behind him.

He took them all into the bathroom. Threw the bedding into the tub. Took a box of matches off a shelf. Lit one of them. Threw it into the tub. The smoke seemed to soothe him.

He felt a wave of weakness, and had to grab onto the sink for support. He turned on the water, ran it over his hand as the rest of his body slumped away from it. Shinra, who had watched all this with concern, shook his head. He grabbed a salad bowl out of the kitchen, and filled it with water. He gently guided Izaya's hand from sink to bowl, and lay his body down carefully, before he continued treating the damage as best he could.

Izaya smiled wearily, "I got myself into this… you don't have to worry about me" he managed.

"Idiot. I'm in far too deep to ever just leave you to your fate."

* * *

**So at long last it's back. Don't know for how long, but it's back. **

**Writer's block + busy schedule = not good. **


	15. A Good Deed

Lying in the dark, on his cold bed, and too many painkillers to be comfortable sleeping, Izaya could let his mind wander. That was never a good idea. His mind could wander to the weirdness of the last few days. To the fact that there were people sleeping in the living room who wouldn't consciously betray him.

A few pathetic sounds managed to escape his throat before he could clamp down on them.

A half asleep figure on the couch stirred from its slumber with a noise like "wha-who dere?"

"Just me, go back to sleep" Izaya said, trying to sound bored and unaffected, but apparently unable to speak louder than the incriminating evidence lodged in this throat that he desperately wanted to burst into tears.

"That's more worrying than anything. "

"Idiot."

"huh?"

"How do you manage it?"

"Manage what?"

"Ruining everything."

"Well that's a bit of an overstatement…" He was silent for a few moments. "What am I ruining…"

"Hey, Shizu-chan, do you want to have a fight?"

"No, you're wounded. I can't get angry at someone who can barely move."

"My moving is not the point of this fight."

"Then I'd kill you." The dark shape sat down on the edge of the bed, facing the window.

"Yeah, I know."

"Why do you sound like you're going to cry?"

"Because I can feel it all getting more difficult." Izaya said tonelessly "You, and Shinra, and Shura, and Celty, you're all making my plans too hard to go through with."

"Why?"

"Because you're here." Izaya said, choking on words he never thought he'd say "I worked for years so that my leaving would be a… a last f- favour to you all… and here you are pretending I'm not evil incarnate. You're all here helping me…"

Shizuo had lain down beside Izaya. A bit too close and too warm for the comfort of Izaya in his vulnerable state. Shizuo was true to his name for a few moments. "Listen here…" When Shizuo spoke it was unexpectedly gentle. "Since my anger's been, did you say redirected? Well yeah, Since it stopped being my problem, I've had some time to think."

"Shizu-chan had a thought? Stop the presses."

"Shut up." Shizuo growled "anyways, a lot of the things I've had to deal with lately have been kind of dangerous and I've relied a lot on my strength to deal with them"

"Yeah yeah, Shizu-chan's strong, I know that already."

"I said Listen!" Shizuo took a few breaths to calm down. "I realized a thing… the me that I was in Highschool… the way he fought… wouldn't have saved Akane-chan from those kidnappers… the highschool me would have thrown the nearest object at them and then died."

"Don't underestimate yourself Shizu-chan…" Izaya murmured "You got me pretty badly a couple times back then, if I recall correctly."

"Against the cursed blades… Highschool me would have used up all my adrenaline in ten seconds and then been overwhelmed."

"Silly, Shizu-chan, Remember those two and a half days after graduation? The ones you spent chasing me around the rooftops? You had plenty of stamina back then."

"You miss the point." Shizuo sighed "Fighting with you… well… as much as I hated it at the time… it made me stronger. The first time we met you reminded me that I was vulnerable."

"Do you still have the scar?"

"Faintly." He chuckled under his breath "But I learned how to use shields, and tactics, even in my berserk rages. If you had ignored me in Highschool… well I'd be dead by now."

"… are you… thanking me?"

"Might be."

"Because, you know, only naïve kids actually thank me."

"Anyways. So… if you were to die… I'd visit your grave…"

"You don't want hungry-ghost Izaya on your case?" Izaya scoffed "It's not as if I have anyone to miss me."

"Everyone is missed by someone... And sure I'd spit the first couple visits…" Shizuo shifted uncomfortably "But then later I'd notice my own restlessness. The way I wasn't improving much. I'd start to wonder if I'd got you wrong."

"Well I can assure you. You know precisely who I am." Izaya joked "No guilt needed."

"And Shinra… well he'd probably take it personally… being a doctor and all… He'd beat himself up over not being able to save you." The words were precise, and spoken without tact. Fitting someone whose being was ninety nine percent instinct. And speaking to the value of those instincts was the very fact that each word cut like a knife.

"Shizuo… stop… please…" Izaya choked out. But Shizuo, who always made everything so damn difficult, and knew precisely how to foil his plans, would never follow Izaya's instructions unquestioningly. The beast, and roadblock that he was, reached a hand over and gently smeared Izaya's warm tears. "If we… If you keep doing this… I'll never be able to…"

"Why are you so intent on getting to Heaven?"

"It's not Heaven, it's Valhalla…"

"Same difference."

"I… I don't want to die…"

"Then don't." Shizuo turned Izaya's head to look at him, and in the light of the moon, and streetlights they were all familiar silhouettes, and shining eyes. "idiot, flea, always making things more difficult than they need to be. Don't throw away your life because your afterlife will be better."

"P-Please… no more" Izaya was shaking under the pressure of his own words, dredged, unskillfully, from the stagnant pond of memory. _You shouldn't even be thinking of an afterlife. – It's unforgivable to choose death and cling to the selfish idea of an afterlife. – Reserved for the living. _"Shizuo… crush me… squish me… destroy me… now… If I wake up tomorrow I won't ever be able to go through with it!"

"Then if you want to do me a favour…" Shizuo was a little surprised at his own words, He got onto his hands and knees, looking down into glistening eyes. He slid himself down, closer, slipping his arms around the tiny, un-protesting man's chest.

"Thank you" Izaya breathed. Smiling madly.

"… Will you let me do something gentle?" he continued as if he hadn't heard what were probably intended as last words.

"what?"

"I want to get you through till morning."

"How cruel, Shizu-chan"

"Please, as a favour, let me not be a monster." He kissed Izaya "Or at least not a lonely one, tomorrow."

"Who'd have thought you'd know how to take advantage of a guy like this" Izaya joked.

"Well I learned from the best." Shizuo murmured. "Tonight, I'm not going to fight you. Even if you hit me and taunt me. You are worth so much more alive, even to me."

"It's not fair…"

"What?"

"You're getting this all your own way."

"for once."

Izaya stretched his arms above his head, not so much out of muscle stiffness, as to reach the tiny package taped to the headboard. In one fluid movement there was the ripping sound of veneer coming off wood, the shwick of a blade reaching the end of its spring, and shwit of it grazing Shizuo's shoulder.

"What? You think a flesh wound like that's going to stop me?" Shizuo laughed. As Izaya made another movement Shizuo caught the wrist, twisted and flung the blade onto the floor. "I'm not letting this be the night you go to whatever afterlife you're imagining."

…

When dawn came, and the sun, in her tyranny invaded even the darkest reaches of the room. The former, and possibly future, enemies, were an indistinct tangle of legs and arms. Both were overtired, and emotionally drained.

That they were fully clothed was a mercy, because they only had a moment's warning, in the form of Yato's chatter, before the door was thrown open and an extremely energetic Shura burst through the door. "GROUP HUG! Good morning, Daddies! At Yato's house… well he said it was this guy called Tsuki… something…'s… anyways! We saw such cool things! It was all full of people building it. And on the other bit they were tearing it down, like it was one of those things that eats itself. It was SUCH a big house!"

A hug from Shura was liable to leave bruised ribs at the best of times, so it was a minor miracle that both men survived her excitement. Shinra rubbed sleep out of his eyes while standing in the doorframe watching in disbelief. Izaya sat up, and turned eyes, red from crying, and lack of sleep, on his daughter. "That sounds like Ise… and most of it's not Tsukiyomi's…" the know-it-all basked in the light that shone in Shura's eyes when he told her about its history, and mythology, sparing none of the gruesome details.

Shizuo stared into space, his breath coming in spurt of near-silent laughter "You all survived the night?" Shinra said, unaware of how close a thing it had been.

"I think so…" said Shizuo. "I… I did it…" tears welled up and fell into the smile that he couldn't hide. "I saved someone, Shinra…" Shinra looked concerned so Shizuo elaborated "Not my strength, not my timing… Me…"

Shura, curiosity not nearly sated, but brought down to a level where she could be aware said "Iza-daddy, why are your eyes all red?"

"My eyes are always red, dear."

"I mean the… those parts…"

"The Sclera" Shinra volunteered.

"scl…"

"Sclera… the white parts of the human eye…" Shinra fed Shura's seemingly limitless thirst for knowledge with a short, half asleep, lecture on why you couldn't always see the blood in the human eye.

"Okay… I think I understand. So Iza-daddy, were you up past your bed time?"

Izaya smiled, more or less against his will. He couldn't look at Shura without his heart wanting to split down the seams, it couldn't contain the sheer pride that she brought out in him "I… I was up way past my bedtime. But you know what? I… I think I'm going to be alright…"


	16. Come in from the Sea

And this was it.

They were stuck.

Three deities, a genius, a human wrecking ball, and a doctor couldn't come up with a way to win against the magician. Killing him would be losing, confining him would be losing, letting him go free would be losing. Too many people were involved for simple answers to work.

Hiyori, and Masaomi had gone home the night before, not at all sure what they could contribute.

Izaya had gone silent about an hour ago and was as curled up as his broken body would let him, still confined to his bed while others sat around it. Shura had found a balloon in, who knows where, and insisted that they blow it up. So they sat around trying to keep it from hitting the ground with greater or lesser degrees of excitement.

[Would he have the same kind of power over someone he didn't know? We could get a stranger to make the trap.] Celty sent to a group text. In the silence of the others reading she tapped the balloon with her hand, and then uncertain of its trajectory, once with her shadows.

"Not possible." Sighed Yato. "He's far too skilled at psychometry. He'd know enough immediately."

Shinra spoke up "I'm more concerned for that poor boy that he's…"

"Riding" Yato volunteered.

Shinra blushed "I… I wasn't going to say…"

Yato groaned "It's a term for possession. Get your head out of the gutter."

"oh… umm… anyways, isn't there some way to separate the two?"

Shizuo carefully touched the balloon when it came his way, and looked disappointed when it fell to the ground near his feet. "That would kill him."

"Oh… right…" Shinra knew he was out of his depth when it came to occultism.

"Unless you are volunteering to be the next host?" Yukine scoffed.

"Of course not!"

"Not that I get why we're not killing him." Shizuo muttered.

"Because he's the only one who's keeping me alive." Yato snapped.

"And how does he manage that?"

"He remembers me, even when no one else can"

[Why can he, and no one else?] Celty sent.

"Search me, I tend to boil everything concerning him down to 'unbelievable cosmic powers itty bitty sense of decency'" Yato picked up the balloon that had rolled to him from Shizuo, and tossed it to Shura desultorily.

[No, I mean… I'm remembered, and I haven't been very active for a long time. What is it about you and him…]

Yukine's eyes widened and narrowed in the space of a second. He climbed up on the bed and poked at Izaya, "Hey, what's your wifi password, I want to check something." He poked Izaya a couple more times, before Izaya started spouting a series of letters and numbers, some of which were apparently not in Japanese. Yuki glared. "Okay give me the password to your computer."

"mmmnoo" Izaya pouted. Unable to rouse any enthusiasm from himself.

"Come on, it's important"

Izaya waved Yukine away, and reached over to the table to grab a phone, which he opened up to a web browser. "There. Look things up" he grumbled handing the device over.

Yuki spared a second for a confused glare before typing furiously, trying to correctly insert unfamiliar sounds, with limited success. Eventually the search for "Cyhyraeth" brought up a few web pages, some folklore sites, and a loud grating musical roar.

"Is Cyhyraeth your full name?" Yuki asked Celty, prompting a noncommittal shrug from Celty, and confirmation from Yato. "If that's the case then you are definitely remembered. They seem to see you as a dangerous, and ugly fairy"

Shinra went straight to indignation. "oi what sort of…"

"I never said I agreed with them." Yuki snapped. "but in any case. Her life is preserved because people speak her name, regardless of whether she is accurately remembered. The people who remember her, seem to be small in number but desperate to keep traditions, and by extension, her, alive."

Yato was staring off into the distance.

[how is this going to help Yato?]

Yuki stared at Yato "What's your name Yato."

"Yato"

"I mean your powerful name"

Yato tried to speak but found his voice gone. Giving up he muttered "You already know it."

"I think I just figured out how to survive this."

There was a slight commotion from the door as someone tried to come in but tripped over the shoe ledge. In a faltering voice, as if having to stop and remember every syllable they were trying out, a lilting voice called out "Ta-Dai-Ma?"

"… The hell? Killy? Is that you?!" Yukine yelled. He had forgotten that they had not all been there.

Killy poked her head in and gave a tired smile.

[Where were you?!] Celty typed and held up to Shooter, who put on an unconvincing expression of incomprehension.

Yato shifted awkwardly. Shizuo noticed and barked "You, what to you know?"

"I have a name…" Yato whined.

"So what?" Shizuo growled.

"Hey, take it easy." Yato said frantically warding off conflict. "It's just… Killy-ma, here… She's sort of an old human…"

"Sort of?" Interjected Yukine.

Yato said something interrogative to Killy, and Killy responded with what she knew.

"So Kelpies, Selkies, and other sea-type-faery-things… the story goes that they were the old worshippers of the gods of Europe. A lot of old gods were protected by people who reinterpreted them… a lot like the renaming of us as bodhisattvas. Only more necessary… and so worshipers would survive, and not change much except that it was a saint, or faery, or something, they were asking rather than a deity. The stubborn ones were driven farther and farther West. When they got to Ireland, they dove into the sea, and became sea creatures, with power to have vengeance on the followers of this god from the east."

"You're rambling…" Izaya muttered, burying his tired, aching head in a pillow.

"I'm not done yet! So Killy is a kelpie… which is a kind of Seahorse…"

"Seahorse?"

"You know what I meant. She specializes in trapping men, and dragging them to a watery death."

Yukine was staring in horror, at Yato. Someone who was the same kind of creature as him was capable of that? "And she didn't get corrupted by this?"

Yato waved it away "Fae are a special case, as are djinni." His face grew solemn again "Killy is one of the smartest people I've met (don't tell Tenjin I said that). She noticed that Yukine was to be kept away from my dad, while she and your other shinki could come in, Cyhyraeth, figured out why, and decided to start handling things her way."

[Which is?] Celty snapped.

"She can make a person immortal, by taking him outside the world."

"So he's gone?" Shinra was fascinated.

"No… About that… She needs power to do that… like the rest of us…" he started to blush and a lopsided grin twisted his face painfully. "and she doesn't take food, or drink like the rest of us…"

"Spit it out"

"She uses… sexual energy…"

"So she just…"

"Yup."

"With your father?"

"Unfortunately…"

"So why isn't he gone?"

"Threes are kind of important to European gods… so she needs to seduce him two more times."

* * *

**I was as stuck as my main characters at what to do about the Magician... hence why last chapter took so long to come out.**

**I feel so much sympathy for the poor kid The Magician is riding.**

**Not actually making up stuff about Killy-ma, apart from her appearance and her general personality. She's an established Faery.**

**Kelpies' sexy-seahorse-of-death deal is not to be confused with the common theme within Celtic music which I have come to call "People involved in the fishing industry marry marine mammals.**

**Go listen to "The Maiden and the Selkie" by Heather Dale**


End file.
